AP Photo/Family photo courtesy of The Detroit News7-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot and killed Sunday, May 16, 2010, when an officer's gun went off during contact with a woman in a house where Detroit police were searching for a suspect in the slaying of a teenager, a police official said.

State police will take
over the investigation of the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl by a
Detroit police officer during a weekend raid at the girl's home, a
prosecutor said Monday.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said
bringing in the state police to investigate the killing of Aiyana Jones
would avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

"I agree
that it is most appropriate that this be done independently," Worthy
said.

Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family's
apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst
in and an officer's gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck,
family members said.

Her father, 25-year-old Charles Jones, told
The Detroit News he had just gone to bed early Sunday after covering his
daughter with her favorite blanket when he heard a flash grenade
followed by a gunshot. When he rushed into the living room, he said,
police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter's
blood.

"I'll never be the same. That's my only daughter," Jones
told WXYZ-TV.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said officers set off
the flash grenade as they entered the apartment with their guns drawn
about 12:40 a.m. Sunday with a warrant to look for a suspect in the
Friday slaying of a 17-year-old boy. The lead officer's gun went off
after he encountered a 46-year-old woman inside the front room of the
home and "some level of physical contact" ensued. Police do not believe
the gun was fired intentionally.

"This is any parent's worst
nightmare. It also is any police officer's worst nightmare," Godbee
said.

Family members identified the woman as the child's
grandmother and Charles Jones' mother, Mertilla Jones, who has said she
was not involved in a struggle with the officer. Police later said the
officer may have just collided with the woman.

The officer, who
police have not publicly identified, was put on paid administrative
leave, Godbee said.

"This is a tragedy of unspeakable magnitude to
Aiyana's parents, family and all those who loved her," Godbee said. "It
is a tragedy we also feel very deeply throughout the ranks of the
Detroit Police Department."

Police eventually found the
34-year-old slaying suspect they were looking for during a search of the
building, Godbee said.

Charles Jones said he had to wait for
hours to find out what happened to his daughter.

"Her blood was
everywhere and I was trying to stay calm, but nobody would talk to me.
None of them even tried to console me," Jones told The Detroit News.

Godbee
would not comment on newspaper reports that neighbors told police there
were children in the house and showed them toys in the front yard. The
girl's father said three other children besides Aiyana were in the home
when the raid happened.

On the porch outside the family's home on
Monday, saddened friends and neighbors added candles, stuffed animals
and balloons to a growing memorial to Aiyana.

"I don't know them. I
came here because I feel it in my spirit. I'm feeling the pain," said
Mark Jones, a 39-year-old Detroit father of four who tied three balloons
to the porch railing.

Terrance Echols, 28, said he was in the
basement of his home, across the street and two doors down from the
home, when he heard a "bang."

He ran upstairs, "and I heard people
yelling, 'You killed a 7-year-old girl. You killed the girl.'"

He
said police quickly converged on the house, blocked the street with
patrol cars and later had several adults lined up, leaning against the
house.

"They were distraught, but the police had them all
stretched out outside."

Charles Jones said he was trying not to be
angry but wanted the story to be told. He said Aiyana was a lively
child who loved to sing and had recently developed an interest in Hannah
Montana and the Justin Bieber song "Baby."

"She was just figuring
out what she liked, what she wanted to do with her life," her father
said. "I want this story to be heard. This was a wrongful death."